Until You

Anthony

 I grew up in a garbage can. My brother and I lived with our father (big time drug dealer) in a trailer directed in a small town not far from Baltimore. White trash was only a name compared to the way we lived. Dirty Fucking People is what they called us. Everyone who knew us knew we were up to no good. Dad was bringing the dough home hustling drugs and prostitutes while Mike and I counted the money and set up dates for the whores. They always got their cut. We used that money to get fucked up on every drug there was out there. We'd party every night and go back to it the next day. Being the main man, people bowed down to my dad. Our mother died when we were young. Accidental overdose they called it. But we knew what really happened to her. She got home late one night after cheating and didn't even know the punch was coming. Dad hit her so hard she fell back, and her head hit the radiator. She wouldn't wake up. Dad made us promise to never open our mouths or he would do the same thing to us. He loved to hit and threatened us. He got a thrill off that.

He chucked pills down her mouth, and we buried her deep in our minds, along with the memory of what we really knew happened to her. 

The first time I lost my virginity was with a whore. Her name was Lisa. I was nervous the whole damn time, but she knew what she was doing. We did it in the back of my father's Buick. Funny how we lived in a shithouse, but dad always had the best cars. I never saw her after that. I always wondered where she went. 

One rainy day, our father never came home. We searched everywhere for him. He seemed to have vanished off the face of the planet. My brother thought he'd packed up and left us. But I knew something was up. No bags were packed, and we had planned to have a meeting the night he disappeared. That was when I knew. Police? I fucking hated the police, but I reported him missing anyways. My brother and I learned to live on our own. Eventually I got us an apartment with the money dad had hidden under the trailer. I got a few guys together and we made our first bust at a local convenience store. Damion and Alex were my main guys. They knew my father; worked for him on a few hustle jobs. My brother stood by me, counting the money and we'd split it evenly. Eventually, our father was a memory, but I always wanted to know the real story of what happened to him. We knew if you were in the game you weren't allowed to ask questions or dig for it. You'd might as well dig your own grave. I never loved my father anyways.

The guys and I were going to do our next gig tonight at the Welcome Inn. Alex worked there as a janitor and knew the place where they kept the safe. The boss gave him the keys to work the night shift since he had been away on vacation. Alex was to work that night, leave the back door open so that Damion could walk right in, grab the keys and go into the back kitchens where there was a door and grab the safe. I was inventing a gadget that would eventually shut off any camera by a push of a button so that we couldn't be identified. Alex had to play stupid, and if they fired him for it, he was prepared to go onto the next job. We needed to get our hands anywhere that there were safes or good money. Any convenience store we robbed was enough to get us by for a week, but this was a big one and we planned to pull it off. 

"It's time." I said as I drove the car to the back of the building where the kitchens were. Damion got out; face plastered as if it was deformed; "You got this?" I asked him as he put his hat down lower. 

"Yeah man I'll see you in 10. If I don't come out by then, come get me."

"Alright." Even though I always told them I'd come to their rescue I never was. I'd take off even before the people at the airport received my wanted picture.

Damion headed in the direction of the back door near the kitchens. I sat and waited as he went in. I waited 5 mins. 7 mins it was getting closer to 10. 10 mins! "Where the fuck is he?" I muttered under my breath.

Just as I was about to pull off, he came running out with the safe like a fast-paced bullet. I started the car and we bolted out of there. 

"What the hell took so long?" I asked.